Sen. Bernie Sanders: "You have a president who says 'let me do nothing, let me sabotage the current system'" https://t.co/cVfsUpIDXF
— Anderson Cooper 360° (@AC360) July 19, 2017
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) says President Trump is “working overtime to sabotage healthcare” as Republicans push to repeal ObamaCare.
The Senate is expected to vote on a straight repeal of ObamaCare next week despite three senators coming out against it, essentially dooming its chances of passing.
Sanders told CNN on Tuesday that the Senate GOP’s healthcare bill failed this week because it was a “disaster” and the American people didn’t want it.
{mosads}“I think it’s really beyond belief that we have a president of the United States who is working overtime to sabotage the healthcare Americans receive,” he said.
“Instead of working to figure out a way as to how we can lower the cost of healthcare in America and provide healthcare to all people, take on the pharmaceutical industry and lower the cost of prescription drugs, we have a president who says, ‘Ok, let me do nothing.’ ”
Trump on Tuesday blamed Democrats and a few Republicans for not supporting the GOP bill, adding that his new plan is to “let ObamaCare fail” on its own.
Sanders said he doesn’t think ObamaCare will fail but that people will be impacted with higher premiums, citing statements by insurance companies. He said he doesn’t believe anyone will say that ObamaCare is “perfect.”
He made three suggestions to help fix the current healthcare system: allowing a public healthcare option for people in all 50 states, lowering the medicare eligibility to 55 years and allowing companies to import lower-cost drugs from Canada and other countries.
“We’ve got to join the rest of the industrialized world and guarantee healthcare to all people as a right,” Sanders said.